Guest blogger: Mel Teshco

I remember writing long stories in my teens about horses and then more horses, but there was always an element of magic in them too. Because although horses were my passion when I was young, I was as much drawn to fantasy and paranormal elements in my make-believe worlds.

Why have a heroine who can just ride a horse when she can also hear their thoughts, understand them? Why just have a powerful, dark hero when he can be the most powerful vampire of them all, his soul as dark as the night he lives in … a vampire who is only redeemable by the heroine?

I didn’t feature horses in my first two published books. But in my Ellora’s Cave release, a gargoyle was my hero and an heiress my heroine. In my Nocturne Bites release my heroine was a dhampir and my hero a vampire lord. Yes, I’ve since written contemporaries as well, but I’ve always liked to push the envelope with those too. In my book, Enraptured, the heroine is a high-class call girl. In my short story, Beneath the Light of a Silver Moon, the heroine is a victim of spousal violence. But that’s what I love about romance stories: no matter the plot and the characters’ trials and tribulations, the hero and heroine always get their happily ever after!

Speaking of characters’ trials and tribulations, I guess that’s what drew me (eventually) to a request made by Kylie Sheaffe, who’d been struggling with dreams and psychic visions (she was raised a Christian and this challenged her). She wanted someone to write a book with her about a vivid dream she had some years ago that wouldn’t let up. At first I wasn’t particularly interested, but her psychic ‘stuff’ interested me, drew me in just like the characters in my stories. Until one day I just thought, ‘why not?’

That throw-away decision led to a book that took almost three years in the making. We interviewed people whose life choices made them a target from ‘normal people’, we spoke to other psychics, grilled a nurse in the medical field and even had morning tea with a lovely lady whose premature baby should never have survived—but did! And though hard to believe, one of the characters that we introduced to the story, who Kylie met in a dream totally unexpectedly, was a character who actually was real, same name, attributes and characteristics that a friend of hers introduced to us, unknowingly, some weeks later. We felt this person obviously had something to contribute to the story and actually did help to shape the character.

I was also introduced to another friend of Kylie’s, whose poetry blew me away so much we decided it had to somehow be incorporated into the book. All this in the name of research to make Believe authentic and much of it based on real-life experiences.

From the wonderful reviews we’ve had since Believe’s release (5 November) it has touched readers emotionally, so yes I’m glad I didn’t knock back this project. Some things are just meant to happen. And though this book is a contemporary, it’s filled with its own type of magic. Ghosts, visions, psychic abilities and a willingness to accept the unexplainable. Guess I’ll let the blurb do the explaining!

PS–We’ll be doing a giveaway in PDF to one lucky commentator! =) [The giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to Maggie Mundy.]

You can find Mel here: Website | Facebook

Believe

Do you believe in the power of unconditional love?

James Edward Bowheart is a genius in the making, a student doctor who has it all … or so it seems.

His lawyer father is an alcoholic, his mother a strict, god-fearing woman with a critical eye and a cold heart. His sister, Josie, is warm, smart, and overly-sensitive. She sees things no one else can. In and out of mental institutions, she is reviled by their parents.

James begins to question his own logic, fearing the unknown when he too begins to see things, dream things, the drugs he has come to rely on exacerbating the problem.

Only when a new neighbor—a single and very pregnant young woman—helps him to see outside the square and accept the unexplainable, does he truly start to Believe…

And for you poetry lovers—one of the poems from out of the story by the amazing Sue Allen:

That reflection is not me,
The water droplet gliding across my hand,
The wealth of lines and furrows spanned
Anyone can see that reflection isn’t me…
But are my eyes crying silent tears?
Brimming inexcusably with all my whispered fears?
Is this me? Held within the tension of a single drop of water,
My image reminiscent of a lamb led to slaughter…
But I was strong, wasn’t I? My body flexed towards the funnel of the sky—
That fantastic feeling that I’m never going to die!
So why, why do I gaze at my fingers, damp where a runnel of moisture lingers—
What changed?
What spark in my soul has been rearranged?
~Sue Allen